Education is one of the strongest drivers of social mobility and facilitates personal self-development and self-expression. That is why education is also enshrined as a human right. At the same time, not all people who want to study have the same access requirements to be able to pursue higher education. In a European and OECD comparison, this applies in particular to Italy and Germany, which are among the worst-performing countries in terms of the permeability of their education systems. The issue of study financing takes on a central role, as a well thought out (governmental) study financing support system can counteract social inequalities and enable socio-economically disadvantaged persons to participate in higher education.
In the context of this event, we therefore want to take a comparative look at the student financing models in Italy and Germany. First of all, there will be two short inputs on the respective national models by experienced persons (speakers to be confirmed). Afterwards, during the joint discussion, the strengths and weaknesses of the respective models as well as approaches for future-oriented and maybe even European student grants will be discussed. The results of the event will be made available as a report with proposals on the plattform of the Conference of the Future of Europe and will also be used by the European Students' Union for political work at international level.

Joint event by the European Students' Union together with the national student unions of Italy (UdU - Unione degli Universitari) and Germany (fzs - freier zusammenschluss von student*innenschaften).